Did you ever dream that you were a dog agility super champ except then it switched and you were at some germy, grungy, derelict seaside park in the dark and the carnies were actually drug addled zombies that were shambling after you with hammers and their big teeth? And then as you're trying to escape your way out from under their oily, horrible claws by clambering up a rat infested palm tree, you're all, this is about dog agility like, how?

05 June 2008

It is how you have a nice evening at the beach with dogs.

Last night I had the small dogs down on the beach, doing the usual thing of frantically attacking each other over a stick. It's just what they love to do. Sometimes people have commented to me that it looks like they are having a fight while they are running, but I think it's mostly herding behaviors from Otterpop as if the other small dogs are giant cattle needing to be moved somewhere which is away from a stick, and also they all just really want the stick BAD. Even Gustavo has learned that the stick is incredibly important to get to first and it's every small dog for himself and it's pretty funny to watch is what I think. They just play rough. I dunno. It gets them really tired I guess. Maybe I let tiny dogs do things that might freak me out if they weighed something closer to what giant cattle weigh.

So in the era of State Park Rangers, my trips to the beach and the field are usually pretty solo these days. I frequently have a whole beach to myself in the eveining, sometimes a couple other dogs, sometimes some drunk guys or some tourists from India. Sometimes I take a tourist picture for them with small dogs attacking a stick in front of the scenic sea as their background. Last night there were a couple people down there with pitbulls, so a small herd of small dogs at one end, and a small herd of pitbulls at the other.

Some of the pitbulls I knew, have known them for years. Good dogs, with a foxy girl owner who runs up and down the beach with them. Very sweet and well behaved dogs that like a tennis ball for some good fun. The other ones, never seen before but didn't give me any cause to think Maybe Leave the Beach Now, which is something I have done a lot, because when your dogs weigh like 14lbs, and other dogs down there start attacking things and obviously have no clue about the word Come or have an owner that obviously isn't ever going to use that word, you just pack up and move on somewhere else.

So I am down at the far end of the beach, throwing that stick, when I look up and at the other end, 2 pitbulls attached to each other and 2 owners holding pitbull legs like wheelbarrows, standing there and pulling and pitbulls just attached like glue, mouth to head. For a long time. My one thought was, they probably need some help because there are 2 other pitbulls just hanging out and those things are not coming off each other's heads, but my other thought was, I am not bringing my tiny dogs anywhere near where there are already pitbulls attached to each other like that.

In the end, one of them had a bloody but not ripped off ear. Still attached. Never saw the other one because the owner got it off the beach. The foxy girl, she just started running down the beach again with her tennis ball, and the old fetching pitbull just trotted after her for a while, bloody ear somehow still stuck on his head.

Nah, pitbull wheelbarrow holding is how you can grab two fighting dogs to try to separate them without putting your hands anywhere near their heads which would = near their mouths filled with biting sharp pointy teeth.

But it doesn't help a lot if one of the dogs just won't let go. I don't know what step 2 would be in that case! But certainly it wouldn't be to take Team Small Dog closer, so I think that was the right (non) move.

Hey any day that the Capt and the Team get to walk the beach without harassment is by definition a good day...even practicing contacts or chasing bugs pales in comparison. Now you better not admit to having a clicker in your pocket when you went to the beach. (hmm. I probably would have. sigh)

Laura Hartwick, Captain

Many people around Santa Cruz know Laura as the lady with all those little black dogs. Many people know her as a horse trainer. Many people know her as the artist with the small brushes. Many people know her as that hoity graphic designer.
None of them would be wrong.
All the dogs of Team Small Dog, righteously awesome.
Laura Hartwick is usually a nice person. Except when she isn't. Be nice, don't bite, and run faster.